From: Michael Hamilton (thethemichael@gmail.com)
Date: Sat Jul 16 2005 - 15:00:16 BST
Hi everyone,
I'd just like to correct a glaring error, and to re-state my case:
that to call the MOQ "anti-theistic" or "non-theistic" is misleading
at best, because Quality is synonymous with many theological
conceptions of God (that's "God" when stripped of centuries of
accumulated misunderstanding and idolatry by society at large).
> > Scott Quotes:
> > >" The MOQ would add a fourth stage where the term "God" is completely
> > >dropped as a relic of an evil social suppression of intellectual and Dynamic
> > >freedom. The MOQ is not just atheistic in this regard. It is
> > >anti-theistic. "
>
> This just strikes me as a ridiculously simplistic appraisal of Western
> religion. Pirsig [NOT Copleston, who I mistakenly assumed to be some mysterious MOQ commentator] is absolutely right that religion *has* been used
> by the proponents of social value to suppress intellectual enquiry.
> But isn't it very unwise to judge religion in general by this fact?
> I'm happy to drop the term "God" where it alludes to some "guy in the
> sky" who literally made the world in 7 days and has the power to judge
> you when you die. But to reduce every idea of God to that, is to
> destroy any understanding of that way Westerners experienced reality
> before the scientific revolution - you know, before the taking-hold of
> SOM that most of us want to escape. Also, a thoroughgoing
> anti-theistic attitude goes directly against one of main thrusts of
> Lila - that intellect should not be trying to obliterate social value,
> but to improve it.
>
> From Wikipedia:
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Theism is the belief in one or more gods or goddesses. More
> specifically, it may also mean the belief in God, a god, or gods, who
> is/are actively involved in maintaining the Universe. This secondary
> meaning is shown in context to other beliefs concerning the divine
> below.
>
> The term is attested in English from 1678, and was probably coined to
> contrast with atheism attested from ca. 1587 (see the etymology
> section of atheism for details).
>
> The primary meaning sees four major views of the role of the divine in
> the world in this context:
>
> 1. deism, the view that God created the world but does not interact
> with it; emphasis on deities' transcendence
> 2. theism, (second definition), the view that God is immanent in the
> world, yet transcends it;
> 3. panentheism, the view that the world is entirely contained within
> God, while at the same time God is something greater than just the
> world.
> 4. pantheism, the view that the world is identical to God; emphasis on
> deities' immanence
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> After reading 2 and 4, can you really tell me that the idea of Quality
> (as reality) doesn't have at least a flavour of theism?
Regards,
Mike
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